For my post this week, I’m going to look at the rise of veganism. No, I’m not a vegan. I’m pretty sure I never will be. But I find the increasingly prominent vegan movement intriguing. Here’s why…
Earlier this year, I saw an advert at a bus stop that made me scoff. It was an ad for a new KFC vegan burger. I thought to myself, “How stupid. Any vegan who flocks to get one of these is a massive hypocrite. Surely they won’t be happy giving money to a company that profits off the back of countless slaughtered chickens?”. And then off I went about my day. But something didn’t feel quite right. I had a nagging feeling that my thoughts on the KFC burger weren’t correct. But I couldn’t think of why.
A couple of days later, it hit me. I was wrong. The KFC vegan burger (probably) wasn’t stupid. I had failed to take into account that not all vegans make their dietary choices out of a sense of morals. Some vegans are purely in it for health reasons. These would likely be the ones this burger was aimed at. Unfortunately, the lockdown came into play a few weeks after the burger launched, so we’ll likely never know how successful or otherwise it would have been. Veganism is quite the complex movement now. It used to be so much simpler… for me anyway.
When I was a young boy, I don’t think I even knew that vegans existed. In school, we were taught about vegetarians, but that’s it. Funnily enough, there must have been some crossed wires at some point, because – as a young child, I must stress – I thought being vegetarian was something you were born as. Like something akin to the colour of your hair or how tall you are; you don’t decide, it’s luck of the draw. I remember thinking, “I’m so glad I’m not a vegetarian.”.
Anyway, I soon wised up and realised vegetarians made a choice to not eat meat. Growing up in the 90s, it seemed to me (from my admittedly narrow perspective) that vegetarians weren’t very common at all. I certainly didn’t come across many. The ones I did come across – whether in person or on TV – seemed mostly to be concerned about animal welfare. Yes, a “healthier lifestyle” was usually mentioned, but the primary message seemed to be about the terrible conditions animals were kept in and the inhumane ways in which they were slaughtered.
Just as an aside, the poor treatment of animals never had much of an impact on me. That probably makes me sound like a bit of a monster, but it’s the truth. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some sadist who enjoys the thought of animals being mistreated; I abhor violence towards animals in the main. I’m passionately against hunting of all kinds. I have supported the RSPCA down the years and have been fully behind the stance that people who abuse pets should get a prison sentence. But I guess I have just enough cognitive dissonance to not concern myself with animals who suffer to bring me the food that I love to eat.
Anyway, as I said above, vegetarians didn’t seem to have a particularly big following 20-odd years ago. If you went to a restaurant, there would usually be just one vegetarian option (and that would usually just be a salad). Now? It’s difficult to find a restaurant that doesn’t have a decent selection of vegan friendly options. I’m sure some vegans would say that it would be nice to have more choice. But progress has definitely been made.
In London, there are some places that are vegan only. To be clear, I mean all the food and drink in there is vegan friendly. I don’t mean that there’s a bouncer on the door checking to make sure you’re a vegan before you can enter.
So how did this happen. How did the movement (for wont of a better word) go from a handful of vegetarians to a large community of vegans? It’s my assertion that the Internet played a key role. Firstly with message boards and chat rooms, followed by social media. Vegans around the world could suddenly interact, share recipes, and stay up to date with the latest issues. This of course applies to more areas of interest than just veganism. It’s also impossible to ignore the possibility that there have always been this large a number of vegans in the world; perhaps it just took the world becoming more accessible via technology for me to notice them.
As with any group with lots of members, there is a small toxic element. I’ve heard stories of people who lead mostly vegan lifestyles, but once a month they treat themselves to cheese. This seems reasonable enough to me, but there is a certain subset of vegans (we’ll call them “Hardcore Vegans”), who say this sort of thing is wholly unacceptable. Now, as I’ve established, I’m not a vegan. I have no idea what it takes to be a vegan, but I imagine it would be very difficult. What I’d say to hardcore vegans is this: surely someone who follows a vegan diet 97% of the time is still doing very well. Hell, even if it was only 75% of the time, you’d still prefer that to someone who eats meat all the time. Cut your allies some slack.
This is particularly galling if you look at the figures for how many vegans give up the lifestyle. It’s estimated that as much as 84% of vegans/vegetarians go back to eating meat at some point. So it does seem very harsh to come down too hard on someone who has the occasional cheat day.
To anyone who can and does stick to veganism, I salute you. Even though I won’t be joining the vegan fraternity any time soon, I can absolutely still respect the commitment. For those who do fall off the vegan wagon, I’ll leave you with a dope phrase you and others like you can use: “We meat again!”.
Sorry that you read this whole thing just for me to end on a cringeworthy pun. Also, apologies in advance for next week’s post. Until then. Take care.
A Rob Blog 